Imagination

What is imagination?

Is imagination a mental faculty to create objects and concepts that cannot be seen, heard, or touched with the senses? Is it the foundation of creativity, art, and innovation? Is it emotional? Can imagination help us be more sensitive to the feelings of others? Can imagination turn destructive creating a downward spiral of negative self-images and envisioned judgements?

I imagine all these characteristics are true.

Is imagination only visual?

”In my mind’s eye” is where Shakespeare had Hamlet tell Horatio he saw his father’s ghost, (or did he see a “real ghost?”)

Imagination is sometimes described as visual, as mental pictures, imagery, visualization. While mental imagery and visualization techniques do rely on imagination, other senses can be involved.

We can easily imagine sound, which many musicians would quickly attest. We can imagine smells or texture,  You can test this for yourself. Have you ever said something smells, feels, sounds “entirely different than I imagined.”

We think we can imagine another’s feelings, but we should be careful that our imagining doesn’t become projection. It is just better to ask someone how they are feeling.

Is imagination like dreaming?

Maybe. Both are mentally produced sensory feelings that aren’t there.  Imagination is a capability of the conscious mind; dreaming happens when you  are asleep. It is an unconscious process.

There are some similarities between imagination and the dreamworld. Both aren’t limited by reality or what you have seen before and remember.

I’m told that Fritz Perls, psychiatrist and one of the founders of Gestalt therapy said about dreams

“All parts of the dream are you. If you dream about a house. The house is you. If you dream it is on fire, the fire is you as well.”

To interpret dreams, Perls recommended to give voice to each part of the “you” in the dream. I tried this once. I talked as a broken skateboard, as the hill down, as the hill up, and in the process realized that my unconscious was telling me to stop working 100 hour weeks before my body broke down. I used my imagination to interpret a dream.

Imagination is an active capability. Is dreaming more passive or is our unconscious more active than we give it credit for?

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